Chapter Text
2014
Night was falling in the Big Apple, the first hint of cool air was beginning to filter between the skyscrapers, carrying with it the scents of the city. Garbage mainly, mingled with street food, the exhaust of taxis, tour busses and sweaty tourists from the world over. Here and there the stink of weed floated out of alleyways.
Just an ordinary summer evening as far as Sebastian was concerned.
Life had in fact just settled down to its typical level of expected chaos. Fans he could handle, in fact, he loved to meet and talk with them, get to know their stories and stop for a photo. It wasn't like he was incredibly well known, not to the level of Hemsworth or even his pal Anthony who had played the role of Gabe Jones alongside him in a Howling Commandos biopic.
He had played Bucky Barnes, the charismatic sergeant who always had Captain Rogers' back. It seemed like a dream then, though in the last few months it had unexpectedly caused him a lot of bother. Like a whole lot.
Getting ambushed and tranq'd by Shield or Hydra or both? Whatever was left of them twice in a week had definitely caused an uproar in the media.
Paparazzi, for once they were useful!
He hadn't said anything personally, had been ordered by masked agents not to speak a word of it and not go about wearing fashionable bomber jackets in August.
He had conceded the second time but darn it, he was trying to get into character! He had a spy movie he was scheduled to start filming in two weeks!
So now he went about in a tank top. Apparently, the guy they were looking for who somehow looked so much like him that it had tripped Stark tech level facial recognition software twice had a metal arm. He definitely didn't have one of those and he was going to flaunt it everywhere. Sun's out guns out. Right? He turned the corner of a building and was met with… himself?
“ Who the hell are you? Sebastian gasped, eyes widening in shock. His mirror man did not look shocked. He was blank-faced, eyes cold and calculating as he seized Sebastian’s shoulder with an iron-hard grip and forced him into the nearest alleyway.
Sebastian tried to fight, tried to call out, and almost immediately wished he hadn’t. The hand moved from his shoulder to his throat before he could blink, effectively catching his voice in his throat as he was manhandled up against the rough brick wall. He tried again to fight, but it was like the man’s hand had become fused to the wall, there was no escape that route. He immediately went for a more underhanded approach, kicking the man in the groin, but that barely phased him. He had some kind of armor down there or something was wrong. Sebastian felt the hand tighten to an uncomfortable degree, he could feel his rapid pulse hammering past the obstructing hand as well as see it, dancing as dark specks before his eyes.
“ Ok, I surrender. What do you want man? Money? I can get you on a plane out of the country if you want, just stop with the strangling…” Sebastian choked out. The man before him stopped staring at him so blankly, a flash of curiosity crossing his blue eyes.
To his immediate relief, the man shifted his thumb, driving it back into the building with a crack. Sebastian went cold, any doubt he may have had left him in an instant. This was the man the agencies were looking for. And no doubt, he was definitely dangerous.
Hand cold as ice, metal. The Winter Soldier.